Our mission is to interview survivors of organized persecution of children with a focus on psychological aspects of their experiences, to research the history and circumstances of the persecution, and draw lessons which may help understand and support children experiencing similar situations of trauma. Our archive of over 1500 psychologically oriented interviews with child survivors of the Holocaust and additional interviews with children of Nazis is housed at Hebrew University and available to researchers.
This includes documenting patterns of normal child development and the disruptions, distortions, and adaptations which occur during and in the aftermath of trauma. The organization is dedicated to discovering and promulgating approaches which can ameliorate the long term effects on victims of past, present, and future mass dehumanization.
We work with a professional staff with the strong support of volunteers, survivors, community resources, and collaboration with other Holocaust related groups and educational organizations.
GOALS:
- To develop and support projects which further normal child development and aim at prevention of childhood disorders particularly those associated with extreme trauma.
- To conduct interdisciplinary, comparative studies of child development both under “normal” and extreme conditions.
- To validate non-verbal techniques of assessment of personality and treatment of mental health disorders.
- To continue our world-wide efforts to seek out and interview those child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and later persecutions of children who have been silent To continue to systematically analyze the patterns of persecution of children under the Nazis, to assess the adaptation of children to extreme trauma, and to understand modes of recovery in the aftermath.
- To collaborate with and train mental health professionals who are treating child survivors of trauma and their families.
- To encourage and organize creative endeavors of child survivors in the visual and performing arts, writing of poetry, literature, memoirs and public speaking.
- To compile and publish a comprehensive history of the persecution of children during the Nazi era.
- To assist educators in the teaching about the history of persecution of children during the Nazi era and other periods of child persecution.
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To find out more about the Kestenberg archive, run this search on Google: “kestenberg archive” site:nli.org.il/